Duane
Allman died much too early in 1971 at age twenty-four. But at
least he died while rock music was still exciting. And it could
be that’s the way he would have wanted it. As Randy Poe’s
book makes clear, Duane Allman was a man who lived for the moment.
He was not one to think about the future, or maybe about much
of anything except his guitar.
“You never, ever saw him without a guitar unless he was
walking down the street,” says one of the quotes from
the book. Allman would stay up until the wee hours of the morning
playing, and still have the guitar around his neck when he woke
up.
Of course, the dedication paid off. Allman was a successful
studio musician at Muscle Shoals Studio before the Allman Brothers
Band was formed. A less familiar fact that Poe’s book
points out is that brothers Duane and Gregg signed a record
contract years earlier. The record company focused on Gregg
and gave him a solo career, even though older brother Duane
was the musical leader.
Poe’s book focuses on Allman’s recording career
instead of his lifestyle. Duane did more than his share of substance
taking and generally lived too fast, which culminated in his
fatal motorcycle accident. His fans, however, should be more
interested in how he made his records and the history of the
Allman Brothers, a volatile group that were the originators
of the Southern rock sound.
Occasionally Poe seems to overdo the superlatives in his descriptions
of the band’s music. But that is easy enough to do. He
is honest about the band’s less successful endeavors as
well. Many readers will be surprised to learn that the Allman’s
ever had a synthesizer player in an attempt to “modernize”.
Poe carries on the history of the band after Duane’s death
and gives updates on the some of the people mentioned and quoted
in the book, as well as listing Duane’s discography.
The well researched book is essential for anyone who follows
the history of Southern rock.
Book website at http://www.skydogbook.com.